Ezra Pound

Cantos

XLV

With Usura

1

With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting

that design might cover their face,
with usura

hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luthes

2

or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,

with usura

seeth no man Gonzaga

3

his heirs and his concubines

no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly

with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags

is thy bread dry as paper,
with no moutain wheat, no strong flour

with usura the line grows thick
with usura is no clear demarcation

and no man can find site for his dwelling.
Stone cutter is kept from his stone

weaver is kept from his loom
WITH USURA

wool comes not to market
sheep bringeth no gain with usura

Usura is a murrain,

4

usura

blunteth the needle in the maid’s hand

and stoppeth the spinner’s cunning. Pietro Lombardo

5

came not by usura

Duccio

6

came not by usura

nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin’

7

not by usura

nor was ‘La Calunnia’

8

painted.

Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio

Praedis,

9

Came no church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.

10

Not by usura St Trophime

11

Not by usura Saint Hilaire,

12

Usura rusteth the chisel
It rusteth the craft and the craftsman

It gnaweth the thread in the loom
None learneth to weave gold in her pattern;

Azure hath a canker by usura; cramoisi

13

is unbroidered

Emerald findeth no Memling

14

Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man’s courting

It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth

between the young bride and her bridegroom

CONTRA NATURAM

15

They have brought whores for Eleusis

16

Corpses are set to banquet

at behest of usura.

1936, 1937

1. Latin: usury, interest paid for money borrowed. Pound uses the term to refer generally to greed for money.
2. Latin: harps and lutes.
3. Probably an allusion to the Italian Luigi Gonzaga (1267-1360), who established the princely house that ruled

Mantua between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.

4. Plague.
5. Italian sculptor (1435 - 1515).
6. Duccio di Buoninsegna (1260? - 1318?), the first great Sienese painter.
7. Piero della Francesca (1420? - 1492) and Giovanni Bellini (1430? - 1516), Italian painters.

8. A painting by the Italian Sandro Botticelli (1445? - 1510).
9. Fra Angelico (1387? - 1455) and Ambrogio de Predis (1455? - 1506?), Italian painters.
10. Latin: “Adam made me,” the signature of the architect of the Church of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona, Italy.
11. Church in Aries, France.

12. Church in Poitiers, France.
13. French: crimson cloth.
14. Hans Memling (1430? - 1495), Flemish painter.
15. 'Latin: contrary to nature.

16. Ancient religious sanctuary near Athens.